The Relevance of Culture and Cultural Heritage for Healing, Peace and Resilience (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Philosophy - Practical (Ethics, Aesthetics, Culture, Nature, Right, ...), grade: 1,0, LMU Munich (Fakultät für Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft), course: Seminar: Ethics of Cultural Heritage, language: English, abstract: Cultural heritage and cultural identity play a vital role in every human's life, no matter if the individual realizes it, actively participates, or not. Culture is arguably the highest achievement and expression of human life.

This paper is an attempt to show the importance of this social structure, the meaning for the individual and society at large. I argue that culture (which includes cultural heritage) plays an essential role in stabilizing peaceful coexistence, inside a nation and between nations. Tangible and intangible cultural heritage has a bonding effect and adds to cultural identity. Cultural identity combined with a sense of coherence is a substantial part of a stable society and provides a source of resilience for the individual as well as the group. Only those groups (and individuals) are able to communicate openly with others and overcome challenges with integrity. They are able to recognize and respect the "otherness" (i.e., different cultures) of "the other" (i.e., other nations) and peaceful coexistence is strengthened this way.